The Christmas Wedding Crashers
by buffyandspikefan
Summary: Sequel to The Bad Wolf Parts the Ways. After a married 9Rose stopped the Daleks, Rose is left changed forever...characters not mine, don't sue! Feedback is love!
1. Chapter 1

The Christmas Wedding Crashers  
Chapter 1:

"Change? What you mean, Rose is going to change?" Jackie Tyler asked, staring at the lifeless body of her daughter in the arms of the Doctor.

"Were you not listening? Never mind, I don't have time to go over it again. I think it'd be better for Rose to be in familiar surroundings because there's no telling how different she's going to be when she wakes up. So I need to park the TARDIS in your flat. NOW!"

The Doctor took satisfaction in seeing Jackie Tyler jump at the tone of his voice. But his hearts sped up as Rose's body twisted in his arms, the skin going translucent. Golden energy radiated off of her, and her unseeing eyes opened, revealing golden orbs inside.

Jackie and Mickey the Idiot gaped.

"Right," the Doctor passed his wife's body over to her ex-boyfriend. "Make yourself useful, Mickey-boy, and get her to bed. I'll move the TARDIS to her room and Jackie, I'd love to have a nice cuppa if you've got the kettle on." He paused. "Look who I'm talking to, Rose can't make one, why would I expect you to? Honestly, what do they teach you Londoners in this century? All mobiles and Internet and nothing practical." He disappeared into the TARDIS.

Pushing a few buttons and turning a few knobs, the Doctor heard the second-nature whirl of the engines. Placing both hands on the console, he drew in a deep, steadying breath. He was in completely new territory, and he wasn't ashamed to admit, at least to himself, that it scared him. Truth be told, everything about Rose scared him a little. He had been used to someone knocking about time and space with him, occupying the place at his side.

But not in his heart. At least, not like this. He was a Time Lord, his whole existence with the human race was leaving them behind – either they found a time or a planet where they felt compelled to stay, or they succumbed to the ravages of old age. After a while, he learned to leave them behind before that could happen, or before he became too attached to them to be pained by their absence. They were allies, students, and a select few became friends. Never anything else.

Until she came along.

Rose Marion Tyler, a London shop girl, young, but intelligent, brave and compassionate. He thought his heart was hardened by the Time War, by the sheer loss. If he had suspected that she was working her way past his defenses, he would have dropped her off in London without a look back. He hadn't realized until it was too late that his travels wouldn't be the same without her. That he wouldn't be the same man without her.

Then came that strange trip to the planet Paxil and an accidental marriage that became real all too quickly. He was bonded to a fragile human, one who didn't have the trick of regeneration, and though young now, would pass through this world and not get a second chance at life.

And when she had looked into the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex, which had changed everything, even her. Right now, the TARDIS and the Time Vortex were changing her, making her into something compatible with them, a sort-of human Time Lord hybrid. What he hadn't wanted to tell Jackie and Mickey, or even acknowledge to himself, was that there was no guarantee that the process would work or that she would survive it.

The thought of losing her scared him beyond belief.

He clicked a few dials, and with a nod of satisfaction, patted the console with one hand. "Do your best to fix her," he whispered to the machine, and strode over to the doors, ready to face the situation head on.

Golden light whizzed past him and into Rose as she lay on her bed. Leaving the doors open, normally not a good idea, but better to let the vortex and the TARDIS do their work, he moved to his wife's bedside. "Anything?"

Jackie, sitting on the chair next to her bed, shook her head. "Just more of that yellow stuff."

"Jacks, where you want this tree from the shop?" Mickey called out from the next room over.

"I don't care about the bloody tree, it can sodding rot for all I care!" she snapped and then turned back to her daughter. "What's happened to her Doctor? What's happened to my little girl?" She smoothed a strand of Rose's hair away from her face in a tender, maternal gesture.

The Doctor found himself softening toward his mother-in-law. "She saved the world, Jackie. You should be very proud of her. She risked everything to stop the worst evil the galaxies have ever known."

"She did it for you." Jackie looked up at him. "I hope you appreciate that. I hope you love her like that."

"I tried to send her back to you. I wanted her safe. But she's got a mind of her own, and it's stubborn. My machine is trying to fix the damage now, to alter her DNA into something that can handle all of the power that she took. It's changing her into something more like me."

"So you're taking all that's left of her," Jackie said softly. "She'll be all yours now, nothing left of me."

He reached over and patted Jackie's hand. "Trust me, there's a lot of you in Rose, Jackie Tyler. That stubbornness, for one. No matter what she becomes, she'll always be your daughter."

Jackie gave him half a smile.

"How is she?" Mickey popped his head in.

"Same." Jackie sighed. "What were you going on about the tree?"

"That new tree, the one you had sent over. I put it in the living room, but it's getting a bit cramped in there. I could give your old one to Rodrego if you want."

"Mickey, what you blabbin' on about? I didn't order a new tree!"

"Well, there was a knock at the door and there it was," Mickey said.

Three pairs of eyes met. The Doctor was immediately on his feet, sonic screwdriver in hand.

"Jackie, stay with Rose," he commanded and he and Mickey stepped into the hallway.

A seemingly innocent looking tree sat amid the Tyler's living quarters, all decked out in lights and garland.

"You decorate that or did it come like that?"

"It came like that."

"You didn't think that was a bit odd?" The Doctor cast a sideways glance at Mickey.

As if sensing their presence the tree began to spin and shake. Lurching forward, its innocent looking branches began cutting like blades. The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at it and it exploded.

Jackie burst out of Rose's room. "Here, what's going on?" She stared at the mess. "What'd you go and blow the tree up for?"

"It wasn't a tree." The Doctor put the screwdriver back in his pocket. "Remote control. But who's controlling it?"

"I'm going to lose the security deposit!" Jackie complained.

"Stay with Rose," he commanded, and hurried outside, Mickey dead on his heels.

Three rather odd looking Santa figures stood in the parking lot, staring up at them. The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at them and they backed up, and then teleported away.

"They've just gone!" Mickey said. "What kind of rubbish were they? No offense, but they're not much at all if the sonic screwdriver scared them off and blew up that tree thing."

"Pilot fish." The Doctor was working out the possibilities in his head, and none of it was adding up well. "They were just pilot fish. Rose is still regenerating, she's bursting with energy. The pilot fish can smell it, a million miles away. They try to take out the defense, that's us, and carry her off. They can live off of her for a couple of years. But they're not the worst bit. If we've got pilot fish, then something bigger is coming."

"Doctor!"

Mickey jumped. "That's Jackie!"

But the Doctor was already running back toward the flat, hearts pounding, mind racing. Maybe the regeneration had failed…

He burst into the room, holding onto either side of the doorframe, staring in shock. Mickey banged into him only moments later. Rose's body was writhing and bucking on the bed, yellow light exploding from her eyes and mouth.

Jackie looked up at him, terrified. "Help her!"

He knew, and it was no less terrifying. "It's happening." 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Jackie, you may not want to be here for this," the Doctor said, not really sure if he did either.

"She's my daughter!"

"I can't guarantee how much she's going to change. She could become older, younger, prettier, uglier, stupid like Mickey or even smarter than before."

"Oi!"

"The point is, she's going to be different."

"She's still going to be Rose," Jackie said adamantly.

"Yes," the Doctor said, watching the transformation take place. "She'll still be our Rose."

The last of the yellow light burst out of her and it was over. Whatever had been done to her was complete.

The Doctor finally remembered to move forward. He crept closer to the figure on the bed. No matter how many times the Doctor had seen (and had done) regenerations, it still was a bit of a shock at first, a mind trick that the stranger before you was a loved one.

She was dressed in Rose's clothes, still wearing the TARDIS gasket turned wedding ring that he had given her in Cardiff in what was ages ago for the two of them but only months ago for Mickey and Jackie. The figure under those clothes was a bit taller, a bit more slender. Not a lot different, just off. Her facial features were more of the same, nose just a bit of a different curve, chin and cheekbones a bit sharper, lips a bit thinner. She mumbled something under her breath, and he could see the beginnings of a  
dimple forming in one cheek. The most noticeably different thing about her was her hair, it was no longer blonde, now a dark brown, almost black and not long, but a complicated short hairstyle that was all blunt layers in tussled-just-rolled-out-of-bed-after-a-long-shag look that some women managed. It was definitely sexy and he didn't know if he should be ogling her like that, but strange new body or not, it was Rose, it was his wife, and he could ogle her and make plans about exploring that new body if he wanted.

Her eyes opened, bright green eyes, that made his hearts skip a beat and he remembered Rose's prophetic remark about him moving on with a stranger with black hair and green eyes. Little did either of them know at the time that it was herself that she was referring to.

She sat up in bed, looking around at them, wide-eyed, mouth opened, looking a bit frightened and he had the sudden thought that the regeneration hadn't worked like his normally did, that she had forgotten everything, and had essentially become a totally new person.

"What happened? How did I get home? We did stop the Daleks, right?" She looked up at him.

The Doctor thanked all of time and space for rectifying things. And then noticed Jackie and Mickey staring horrified.

"Mum, what's wrong?" Rose asked, looking at her. "Why you staring at me like that?"

"I don't understand, what's she saying?" Jackie said. She looked at the Doctor. "Why can't I understand her?"

"I don't get it, where's Rose?" Mickey said. "There was a bright light like a transporter or something and then that girl appeared where Rose was!"

"Mickey? Mum? Why can't I understand you?" Now Rose looked horrified. "What's happened? What's going on? Why can't you understand me?" She burst into tears.

"Rose, love, calm down," the Doctor said soothingly, taking her by the shoulders and kissing her forehead gently. "It's alright."

"You understand me?" She grabbed onto him and hugged him tightly. "Thank God! Why can't Mum and Mickey?"

"Because you're speaking Gallifreyan."

"What you talking about, Gallifreyan, I can't be! I don't know Gallifreyan!"

"You do now, because I'm speaking it to you." He smiled. "It's nice, actually, speaking the old language. Haven't done that in a very long time. Now, just take a moment, relax, and let the TARDIS back into your mind. It'll recalibrate, get used to your new brain patterns, and translate languages again for you. But this time you'll be hearing it in Gallifreyan in your mind instead of English. Now take a deep breath and relax, because  
your Mum's looking at the both of us a little stranger than usual."

"W-What's happened to me?" Rose asked. "I feel really strange."

"Probably will for a few days. Do you remember absorbing the Time Vortex?"

"Bits. There was this bright yellow light…the Daleks, and I saved you." She smiled. "You kissed me and said I needed a doctor. And then you changed into a stranger with short brown hair and brown eyes." She frowned. "That's not right. You're just the same."

"Your memories are jumbled with the time stream. It can be hard to concentrate at first, you have to learn to filter out the possibilities and focus on the most probable path. Most Time Lords learn to do that early on, you're at a bit of a disadvantage, you might be confused at first, but you'll catch on. Just focus…"

"I changed." She put her hands to her face.

"The TARDIS and the Vortex had to, you would have died otherwise. I thought…" his voice caught at just the thought of it. "I thought you might no matter what. But you've changed, into a human Time Lord hybrid. You've regenerated, that trick I told you about."

"Am I that different?"

"Rose, you're speaking English again!" her mum said. "But why do you sound like you're from the North?"

"Lots of planets have a North," the Doctor said distractedly. "Different in little ways."

"But good?"

"Very good." He smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

Mickey groaned. "Rose gets a whole look makeover and he's already snogging her."

"What are we going to do about the wedding now?" Jackie said, throwing up her hands. "No one's going to recognize you."

"Tell 'em I decided to dye my hair."

"Dye it back to its natural color maybe," Mickey put in, receiving a smack on his arm for his troubles.

"It's more than just your hair, Rose, it's your eyes, your nose…"

"Contacts and plastic surgery, mum, it'll be fine. It's far off, anyway."

"No, it's not, it's today!"

Rose stared at the Doctor. "It's Christmas?"

He nodded. "Merry Christmas, love."

Mickey rolled his eyes. "Enough of this, I'm watching the telly."


End file.
